Nigerian farmers win claim for compensation in The Hague after 13-year battle
A Dutch court has ordered Shell Nigeria to compensate farmers for major oil spills they say caused widespread pollution.
On Friday an appeals court in The Hague rejected Shell’s argument that the spills were the result of sabotage, saying not enough evidence had been provided.
Continue reading...The Reddit forum is at the center of a war between Wall Street and an army of small investors over the store – and Jaime Rogozinski is still getting to grips with it
Jaime Rogozinski always knew WallStreetBets, the Reddit forum he founded, was part of something big – but even he wasn’t prepared for quite how big.
Related: GameStop: how Reddit amateurs took aim at Wall Street’s short-sellers
Continue reading...Commission president says company legally obliged to use UK plants to help deliver on order
Ursula von der Leyen has said it is “crystal clear” that AstraZeneca is bound by its contract to deliver coronavirus vaccine doses produced in the UK to the EU to make up for a shortfall in production in Belgium.
The European commission president dismissed the arguments of AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soirot, that the British government had a first claim on doses produced in Oxford and Staffordshire.
Continue reading...Facebook says group, which has 157,000 members, was taken down for allegedly violating policies unrelated to stock price surges
Facebook has taken down the popular Wall Street discussion group, Robinhood Stock Traders, in a move that its founder described as backlash for conversations buoying shares of GameStop Corp and other companies this week.
GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc and BlackBerry have been at the centre of a market battle as individual investors coordinating on social media including Reddit, and using trading apps such as Robinhood, bought shares and squeezed hedge funds that had bet that those struggling companies would tank.
Continue reading...You don’t have to be a redditer or a big investor to enjoy these Hollywood blockbusters that double as the perfect educational resource
The GameStop debacle has put the stock market on everyone’s radar this week – even those who rarely pay it any attention. Many are depicting the incident as a David-and-Goliath battle between small investors gathering on Reddit message-boards and Wall Street powerbrokers finding themselves unexpectedly on the back foot at their own game. Billions of dollars are in the balance.
Along with such major news events, though, come the instant internet experts. Let’s face it: most of us understand diddly squat about the stock market and rely on Hollywood to inform us about an industry that it portrays as a place in which, to quote from the tyrannical, fictional Gordan Gekko: “lunch is for wimps”.
Continue reading...European commission says new mechanism will give national regulators power to refuse exports
Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine could be blocked from entering Britain from the EU within days after Brussels said it had to respond to shortages emerging in member states.
Following reports of a lack of doses across the bloc, the European commission announced plans to give national regulators the power to reject export requests. The development raises concerns over the continued flow of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, for which the UK has a 40m-dose order, from its plant in Belgium.
Continue reading...Meteoric rise fizzles out after small investors are barred from trading in groups that had soared in value
Small investors mounting an assault on Wall Street speculators suffered a setback on Thursday as trading platforms banned them from buying more shares in GameStop, spawning conspiracy theories, political intervention and at least one lawsuit.
Amateur trading app Robinhood stopped users from investing any further in GameStop – a US chain of video games stores – and seven other companies on Thursday, after an extraordinary rise in their value, spurred by users of the chat forum website Reddit, that cost some hedge funds billions of dollars.
Continue reading...Analysis: Understanding short-selling enabled amateur traders to beat hedge funds at their own game
The co-ordinated effort by users of the online forum Reddit to drive up the share price of GameStop and other companies is designed to turn the screw on short-sellers.
To the layman, the dynamics at play here can seem dizzyingly labyrinthine.
Continue reading...Dozens of villagers, including children, claim they suffered severe burns and sickness after contact with contaminated water
The UK government has accepted a human rights complaint against mining and commodities giant Glencore regarding a toxic wastewater spill in Chad, where dozens of villagers – among them children – claim they suffered severe burns, skin lesions and sickness after contact with contaminated water.
The complaint, brought by three human rights groups on behalf of affected communities, alleges environmental abuses and social engagement failures by the FTSE-100 company in relation to two spillages, the wastewater spill and an alleged oil spill, both in 2018.
Continue reading...Melvin Capital Management had bet on failure of store before small investors sent shares soaring
The White House has said it is “monitoring” the extraordinary surge in the share price of ailing video games retailer GameStop and other companies amid a surge of bets by small investors discussing their investments online.
Wednesday’s announcement by the press secretary, Jen Psaki, came as the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission said they were “aware of and actively monitoring the ongoing market volatility in the options and equities markets”.
Continue reading...EU health commissioner dismisses AstraZeneca argument it is contractually obliged to supply UK first
Britain is on a collision course with the European Union over vaccine shortages after Brussels refused to accept that people in the UK have first claim on Oxford/AstraZeneca doses produced in local plants.
The EU’s health commissioner outright dismissed on Wednesday an argument made by Pascal Soriot, the Anglo-Swedish company’s chief executive, that he was contractually obliged to supply the UK first.
Continue reading...Explainer: AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot gives insight into ‘glitches’ that constrained production
The chief executive of AstraZeneca has dismissed suggestions that the UK is being unfairly prioritised for Covid-19 vaccine doses, in a wide-ranging interview revealing “glitches” that have constrained production.
Pascal Soriot offered the deepest insight yet into a scientific process that has been dragged into the political sphere, as leaders in Brussels and several EU capitals voiced anger that Europe will not get the vaccine as quickly as hoped.
Continue reading...International Monetary Fund says there are concerns about share price bubble
Governments and central banks must maintain their pandemic rescue programmes or risk triggering a stock market crash, the International Monetary Fund has said.
Warning that there were legitimate concerns about a share price bubble, the Washington-based organisation said that without continued low interest rates and government subsidies it was possible a “correction” in stock markets would occur.
Continue reading...The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority will certify the plane separately
Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft has been given the green light to return to the skies in the EU by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), after a 22-month grounding following two fatal crashes.
Marking a crucial step in its return to service, a modified version of the US company’s previously bestselling aeroplane has been given permission to fly again, although not until a package of checks and training is completed.
Continue reading...The video game retailer has become one of the hottest stocks this year in a tale that illustrates the changing face of investing
The coronavirus pandemic hit GameStop hard. Like many retailers, already suffering from the shift to online sales, the video games chain is losing money and plans to close 450 stores this year. And yet, surprisingly, GameStop has become one the hottest stocks of the year.
The 37-year-old chain store group is now the focus of a David-and-Goliath battle between an army of small investors and Wall Street that shows no signs of abating and has highlighted some fundamental shifts in investing.
Continue reading...Those in professions that rely heavily on taste and smell fear the loss of their careers
Around three weeks after Covid-19 completely took away her sense of smell and taste, Maggie Cubbler had a beer. It was a pale ale she’d had before and, to her excitement, it tasted wonderful – just as she remembered. She was ecstatic to feel she was on the road to normality, but she soon found that recovery from Covid is by no means linear.
“After that I started noticing that many things started smelling terrible – like absolutely revolting – and one of them was beer.” For a beer sommelier and writer of ten years, this was a devastating and isolating development. When the pandemic halted her beer travel business and decimated the industry generally, Cubbler had pivoted into doing a beer podcast. Now, with her sense of taste still muted and the source of her livelihood unbearable to smell, her career has been thrown into uncertainty.
Continue reading...Bank’s chief executive, Noel Quinn, claims business not in position to question police requests
HSBC’s chief executive has denied taking a political stance on China’s crackdown in Hong Kong, claiming the bank was not in a position to question police requests when it agreed to freeze accounts of pro-democracy activists.
Questioned by MPs on the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, Noel Quinn ruled out exiting the Hong Kong market in light of Beijing’s controversial new security laws, saying it “would only harm” local customers.
Continue reading...Commission president says firms must deliver on orders after AstraZeneca warns of shortfall
The EU “means business”, Ursula von der Leyen has said, as the bloc doubled down on plans for tighter monitoring of vaccine exports to countries outside of the union, such as the UK.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, the president of the European commission said the EU had invested billions and “companies must now deliver” to the 27 member states.
Continue reading...In virtual address to World Economic Forum, Chinese president calls for multilateral approach to crisis
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has sent out a warning to Joe Biden that he risks a new cold war if he continues with the protectionist policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
In an address to the virtual World Economic Forum event, Xi called for a multilateral approach to solving the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 and said the pandemic should not be used as an excuse to reverse globalisation in favour of “decoupling and seclusion”.
Continue reading...Brexit rule changes that make it tricky to tour the EU will hold back UK artists from a fast-growing market
Limiting UK artists from working and touring in the EU post-Brexit will destroy the development of British music, say European industry experts, amid thriving competition from German rap, Spanish pop and more.
British artists now face the need for visas, work permits and equipment carnets when working in the EU, with emerging acts most likely to feel the impact of this costly and time-consuming admin. Over the last month, the UK and the EU have blamed each other for the inability to strike a deal to help the creative industries.
Continue reading...